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Past Challenges #1 - #178

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Quick Tip Tuesday: Cutting Cardstock on Your Cricut

Hello Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Friends! My name is Sabrina Goldberg and I am hosting this week's Quick Tip Tuesday. I am also one of the new FCCB Design Team members and I am thrilled to be a part of this fantabulous blog!

I am very excited to be contributing to Quick Tip Tuesday, because I love learning tips and tricks from fellow crafty friends, and I also love passing on what I have learned.

Recently, while at my local scrapbook store, I learned a new tip from the owner of the store, Helene. Helene shared that through her Cricut contacts, she was told that one of the better cardstocks to use on your Cricut is American Crafts cardstock. I have some American Crafts cardstock, so I tried it out to see what I thought about it, since I typically use my AC cardstock for the base of my scrapbook pages. My first observation is that the AC cardstock is a solid color all the way through. I do like having a solid color sometimes (instead of the white core) because for certain cuts that are more complex and have a lot of pieces, the white showing through doesn't look as clean.

I went ahead and cut the same image with three kinds of cardstock, one being AC and the other two miscellaneous white core cardstocks. I did a regular cut and then a shadow cut. The cartridge is Joys of the Season. Here are the images of both:

AC cardstock:


Here is an upclose picture:

The AC cardstock looks very clean. There are no white pieces showing through since it's the solid color all the way through the thickness of the paper.

Other white core cardstock:

Here is an upclose picture:

The other white core cardstocks show bits of the white against the color.

In observing the machine as it was cutting, I did not see any differences between the AC cardstock and the other white core cardstocks. I do like the clean look of the solid color cardstock.

I tend to use whatever cardstock I have on hand that will work for my color scheme. When using white core cardstock, I sometimes ink the edges of the entire cut image or parts of the image if too much white shows through, or if a bit of the paper has torn.

I have been successful in using lots of different types of cardstock, but maybe next time you have a chance, try the AC cardstock, or any other solid color cardstock, and see what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts!

And one more little tip on cutting cardstock I found on http://www.obsessedwithscrapbooking.com/, came from a post back in 2008, that Joy found on the Cricut message board from Angie Duran. Angie describes the best speed, blade depth, and pressure for different papers.

Paper & speeds:

Thin paper speed - 1
blade depth - 3
pressure - 3

Cardstock speed - 1
blade depth - 3
pressure - 3 or 4

Thick Cardstock speed - 1
blade depth - 3 or 4
pressure - 4 or 5

I hope you enjoyed my first Quick Tip Tuesday! Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Crafting!

Sabrina :-)


post signature

17 comments:

  1. I've been using my Cricut for quite some time and I still have bad cuts sometimes! Aggravating...I rarely cut at a fast speed unless it's a circle...and I do change out my blade quite a bit. Thanks for the tip on the AC cardstock! I'll have to give that a try!

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  2. Found your cutting tip to be interesting. I've not cut AG cardstock but I do cut a couple different cardstocks. I set my blade to 4 and pressure to 3 for pattern paper (light scrapbook paper). For regular cardstock I set my blade to 5 and pressure to 4. Would be interested in settings for chipboard, fabric & vellum.
    Melissa
    "Sunshine HoneyBee"
    http://CreatedbySunshineHoneyBee.blogspot.com

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  3. Very interesting tip and you did a great job. I definitely don't like the white always showing on some projects so will check this out.

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  4. Great tip & post Sabrina! TFS! :)Amy
    amyscraftingspace.blogspot.com

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  5. I use SU cs, which is solid all the way through and pretty heavy. I get very good results, as long as I have a good sharp blade. I sometimes use PTI cs, which is even heavier (also solid)--never tried AC. I use very different settings than you--(blade depth 6, pressure 4, and speed 3). I need to try your settings and see if I can improve my results. Thanks for the tips!

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  6. Thanks for the tips! Those settings were different than the ones I have seen in the past but I just tried the recommended settings for thick card stock because I was having trouble with a dino cut and it worked great!

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  7. Thanks, Sabrina. I love seeing the comparisons of different papers. You're right, white core paper does not always provide a clean cut. And, I had forgotten about the chart - so thanks for the reminder. I'll keep the info in my file.
    Finally, thanks for stepping in and posting this week.
    Hugs,

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  8. Great tip Sabrina and I love that you demonstrated the results you can achieve with different papers. I almost always ink up the edges on my cuts, but it's nice to have the option of using cardstock that eliminates the need to use ink!

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  9. Thanks for the GREAT tip Sabrina. I always hate when the white core shows thru and I have plenty of AC cs on hand so I will give it a try.

    Big Crafty Hugs!
    Jewels

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  10. Great job, Sabrina! Thanks for doing this week's post. I'm going to copy down those settings for sure. Very helpful!

    XO ~ Amy Jo

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  11. Thanks Ladies for your comments! I am happy to hear this helped. I think that sometimes it's trial and error, but having a guide is helpful to fine-tune the cuts. Also, Cricuts can be different. Sabrina :)

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  12. Thanks for the settings cheat sheet. I chewed up some thin paper just yesterday.

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  13. I'm a Cricut junkie and have cut all different types of paper, but my favorite card stock is Stampin' Up. I use a low speed, high pressure and blade depth at 6. I noticed that a slower speed gives me better cutting results, much cleaner cuts.

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  14. Enjoyed every bit! had to bookmark! thanks
    Thank you Letters

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  15. Great tips, I always use American Crafts card stock partly because it is all my local craft store holds but also because it really does cut beautifully.
    Kim xXx

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  16. Interesting. I have never been able to cut thick card stock with the blade on 4. I have to cut almost everything on 5 or 6 and usually do a double cut when using Design Studio.

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  17. I cut papers with the blade on 5 or 6. :) I am always using AC cardstocks and it never turn me down. :)

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